Planning and engineering method, software tool and system for a process plant

A planning and engineering software tool for a process plant, comprising:

• a plant planning tool configured to compile a flow chart of the plant by linking graphical process objects representing operator controllable and observable facilities of the plant during a process plant planning phase;
• a simulation tool configured to import the linked graphical process objects of the process plant or of a part of the process plant during a simulation phase and configured to simulate a process in the process plant or the part of the process plant utilizing simulation models assigned to the imported graphical process objects during the simulation phase;
• and
• an engineering tool configured to compile a function chart of the plant by linking icons of function blocks during an engineering phase, an automation function block describing the automation function of the graphical process object corresponding to each graphical process object and being further formed to load the automation function blocks into automation devices of the process plant for execution;
• wherein, for at least a part of the graphical process objects representing electrically operated one of the facilities of the process plant, the assigned simulation models are each supplemented by an energy consumption model describing an electrical energy consumption of the facility represented by the graphical process object as a function of measurable or known process variables in the plant;
• wherein the simulation tool is further configured to simulate the electrical energy consumption of the facilities represented by the imported graphical process objects for which the assigned simulation models are supplemented by the energy consumption model during the simulation phase;
• and
• wherein, for at least one of the graphical process objects for which the assigned simulation models are supplemented by an energy consumption model, the corresponding automation function block is supplemented by an energy consumption function representing a specialization of the energy consumption model and which is formed to estimate an current electrical energy consumption of the observable facility during its run-time in the process plant.

A planning and engineering system for a process plant, wherein the planning and engineering system is configured to:

• link graphical process objects representing operator-controllable and observable facilities of the plant to compile a flowchart of the process plant during a process plant planning phase;
• simulate a process in the process plant or a part of the process plant utilizing simulation models assigned to the graphical process objects during a simulation phase;
• and
• compile a function chart of the plant by linking icons of function blocks during an engineering phase, an automation function block describing the automation function of a graphical process object corresponding to each graphical process object and to load the automation function blocks into automation devices of the plant for execution;
• wherein, for at least a part of the graphical process objects representing electrically operated ones of the facilities of the process plant, the assigned simulation models are each supplemented by an energy consumption model describing an electrical energy consumption of the facility represented by the graphical process object as a function of measurable or known process variables in the process plant;
• wherein the planning and engineering system is further configured to simulate an electrical energy consumption of the observable facilities represented by the imported graphical process objects for which the assigned simulation models are supplemented by the energy consumption model during the simulation phase;
• and
• wherein, for at least of the graphical process objects for which the assigned simulation models are supplemented by an energy consumption model, the corresponding automation function block is supplemented by an energy consumption function representing a specialization of the energy consumption model and which is formed to estimate a current electrical energy consumption of the observable facility during its run-time in the process plant.